Issue - meetings

The Chair advised that there would be seven deputations made by local residents.

Konrad Borowski – Stroud Green Residents Association

Mr Borowski had previously addressed the Cabinet at the meeting on 17 December 2013 where the decision had been made.  He felt that the consultation seemed to have been ignored, and it had been presented to residents as a Finsbury Park consultation, not as a wider policy.

The Stroud Green Residents Association requested that the decision be referred back to the Cabinet for them to reconsider the policy and reduce the days back to the 2002 policy, which was for five one-day events.  This generally resulted in the five days being spread over two weekends, rather than five separate events.

The income target for Finsbury Park was £165k.  Based on Mr Borowski’s calculations (using figures from the report), a two day event would produce an income of £378k, and a three day event would produce £450k – a total of £828k, which was significantly more than the income target.  It was therefore difficult to understand why the number of event days needed to increase when the existing five days more than met the income target.

 Each event also required set up and take down time – increasing the event days to fifteen would result in an extra ten weeks of disruption.

Martin Ball – Friends of Down Lane Park

Mr Ball raised deep concern over the exploitation of park areas in the borough.  Parks were public places for residents, and should not be for sale.  Consideration should be given to local people.

Events in parks had not been well managed and had caused disruption to the local environment and people.  It was unrealistic to expect that events were not going to take place, but they needed to be managed in a better way.  The scale of events currently being held was out of context with the size of the parks.

If the policy was not sent back to the Cabinet, it would set a precedent for other events.

Lynn Percival – Friends of Finsbury Park

Ms Percival presented the Committee with a petition containing over 400 signatures from local people who felt that the consultation had not been carried out correctly.

Friends of Finsbury Park were not completely against events in the park, but there were concerns that the recreational use of the park was lost when events took place.  There were also safety issues, accessibility issues, and the affect on wildlife.

The local community already had to put up with five event days in a year, increasing this to fifteen was excessive.  The set up and take down of events was extremely disruptive to park users – the trucks destroyed the grass, fence panel and trees had been broken, and people were unable to use large areas of the park.

Friends of Finsbury Park were keen to work with the Council in order to protect the park.

In response to a question from the Chair, Ms Percival explained that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15